1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to collecting dust particles. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods to collect dust particles formed during the movement of proppant.
2. Description of Related Art
Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” has been used for decades to stimulate production from conventional oil and gas wells. In recent years, the use of fracking has increased due to the development of new drilling technology such as horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracking. Such techniques reach previously-unavailable deposits of natural gas and oil. Fracking generally includes pumping fluid into a wellbore at high pressure. Inside the wellbore, the fluid is forced into the formation being produced. When the fluid enters the formation, it fractures, or creates fissures, in the formation. Water, as well as other fluids, and some solid proppants, are then pumped into the fissures to stimulate the release of oil and gas from the formation.
By far the dominant proppant is silica sand, made up of ancient weathered quartz, the most common mineral in the Earth's continental crust. Unlike common sand, which often feels gritty when rubbed between your fingers, sand used as a proppant tends to roll to the touch as a result of its round, spherical shape and tightly-graded particle distribution. Sand quality is a function of both deposit and processing. Grain size is critical, as any given proppant should reliably fall within certain mesh ranges, subject to downhole conditions and completion design. Generally, coarser proppant allows a higher capacity due to the larger pore spaces between grains. This type of proppant, however, may break down or crush more readily under stress due to the relatively fewer grain-to-grain contact points to bear the stress often incurred in deep oil- and gas-bearing formations.
During fracking operations, workers may load fracking proppant into blending hoppers to mix the fracking proppant with fluids (e.g., water, specialty fracking chemicals, etc.) before injection into the wellbore. The movement and loading of the fracking proppant may produce dust particles which may be inhaled by operations personnel or sucked into mechanical equipment. Inhalation by personnel may negatively impact health. Moreover, mechanical equipment may be damaged by the dust particles. For example, the particles may clog filters and reduce air flow to the equipment. Accordingly, it is now recognized that it is desirable to reduce the presence of dust particles near locations having fracking proppant.